DR Congo

DR Congo: Low Per Capita Output and Weak State Capacity

The Democratic Republic of the Congo's GDP was $71.0 billion in 2024, with per capita output of just $649 across a population of 109.3 million, per the World Bank's WDI figures for that year — a large population set against a very low per capita income figure.

Fiscal and External Position

The IMF's WEO projects government debt at 24.6 percent of GDP in 2026, a forward estimate rather than an actual outturn. Reserves stood at $5.1 billion as of 2023, per World Bank WDI data — a figure two years older than the rest of this profile and a thin buffer against a population of over 109 million.

Military Posture

SIPRI's 2025 figures put military expenditure at $1.23 billion, or 1.375 percent of GDP. That ratio is calculated against SIPRI's own GDP series, not the WDI figure cited above, and the two should not be combined. Active personnel numbered 134,000 as of 2022, per COW NMC, with a CINC score of 0.0059 in the same release. Both figures predate the 2025 spending data by three years and say nothing about force levels amid any current fighting.

Governance

V-Dem's 2025 data gives DR Congo an electoral democracy index of 0.306 and a liberal democracy index of 0.115 — low readings — alongside a state capacity score of 0.108 — a very low reading on V-Dem's 0-1 scale under the v15 methodology.

Energy

Primary energy consumption was 0.1457 exajoules in 2023, and electricity generation reached 15.92 TWh in 2024, per Our World in Data — a small generation base set against a population of over 109 million. Oil production of 12.623 TWh is dated to 2016, nine years stale, and gas production is recorded as 0.0 TWh for the same year. Neither figure describes current output.

What the Data Does Not Show

This profile contains no figures on the armed conflict in the eastern provinces, UN peacekeeping presence, mineral-sector revenue, or foreign troop involvement — all materially relevant to assessing DR Congo's security situation but absent from the supplied facts. The reserves figure is from 2023 and the energy-production figures from 2016; neither should be treated as describing conditions today.

Sources: World Bank WDI, IMF WEO, SIPRI Milex, COW NMC, V-Dem v15, Our World in Data (Energy)